, 1887-08-03

-" ~ JSUA ~ SNel bA0 kOOUStCklS vi HIS
covery must feel "emb ~lrrassei with riches'
when they try TO speak of the contributions
made by the guest Oflast evening to the pro-
gress of human knowledge. It is not that
John Tyndall has linked his name with any
startling and stupendOus revelation of new
TACT or theory. he would probably be
himself the first to deny that, although
even here more than one notable advance
Ill arts, manufactures, or applied philaso-
phy mas dated from some paper from his
nahd ana brain. None, however, has so
LUMINOSITY brought forward the meaning
ana the reach of the laws unveiled bY other
workers; none could ever lead his hearers
or us readers more skilfully iuto the nm
seen but orderly Universe beyond our sen.
ses, and there construct with rich and
suggestive language the world we could
not see or hear, drawing from it silent and
beautiful combinations of his statements.
NO c%On1urer who ever exhibited amazing
feats of legerdemain was neater in manipu-
latlon or more astonishing in his results
than Tyndall featuring at the Royal Insti.
tuition, where, with a beam of light for
his magic wand, and a tube of glass for
his enchanted garden, he forced the fairy
secrets OF Nature to lay bare their lowell.
ness andsubtlety. II a MAJ nave any taste at
all for romance far beyond the noveIiSt's
VA tSAAA " AhAA OtC ulHIOI tbilu lit UudLk
most of those claimedshy THEOLOGY, ho will
surely find in such books rs "Soundp and
Cheat us u Mole Of Motion" delight unpa.
ralleled, while the strong and graceful
style conducts him pleasantly deeper and
deeper into the mysteries which ~encirrle
the cOmmOneSt life. In the "FOrm of Wa
tel" he has followed the transformation of
the Pr0teus element with the passion of an
artist and the precision of q judge-water
that ordinary but marvellous compound of
two gaSses, which of itself might teach the
lesson of st. Paul about tthings seen and
unseen; for we sail upon it, we skate upon
it, we live by it, our bodies are mainly
composed of it, and yet an electric spark
diSSipates into the invisible, and o little
degree of heat raises it into steam and
sends it ghostlike out OF sight again. In
TyndalPs labourS we have always seen the
happy union of a vivid imagination supply
ing large and ready theories, and a faith
full habit of intellect strict and SedulOus as
to facts. There have been dull people who
maintain that scientific work should be
always kept clear Of fancy. but in tho ca
reer of the distinguished guest entertained
last night "the proper use Of the magma
ton III science" has ever been exemplifed,
while ar the same time no step was taken
without patient and watchful inquiry by
CAPOllhOhOW HSblACt NttUuto WOuIu WdEEd1U
and confirm the brilliant and daring specu-
latiOns made in anticipation of her secrets.
And those who are so stupid as to think
that the children of Science may not some.
times boldly guess at what ttthe Mother
still cOnceals in her great and generous
hand may be matched with those who,
like DR.. Huntly, accused such a man Of
want Of religion because of his fidelity to
reason. There can be nothing more religi-
Gus than to love and study truth as DIR.
Tyndall has done; and if, in obedience to
the logic of his laboratory, he asserted that
"the promise and the potency" of all forms
of existence resided in the primordial in
terplay of matter and motion, only the
blind could fail to see that this and all such
formula of life did but put further back
and elevate to sublimer heights the mex
plicable and majestic mystery of Order and
Organizations which made the ''promise"
and communicated the ''potency."
In nothing, however, has Professor Tyn.
dali rendered better service to his time,
we think, than by those researches into
tThe Floating Matter of the Air07 which
have cast such clear light upon the source
of zymotic diseases, and yastlymaided those
who arc labouring to extGpate them. From
the exquisite illustrations given with the
electrical beam operating upon air optical
~ pure and air full of sailing germs, he
put an end to the rash doctrines of sabio-